Montgomery College’s Achieving the Promise Academy hosted a monthly gathering session on March 12 at the Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus.
ATPA’s March Learning Community Hour, Make the Most of Digital Organization, took place in the Leggett Building and focused on helping students organize their digital lives using platforms offered at MC, such as Outlook and Blackboard.
André Ferguson, ATPA student assistant and architecture and interior design major, presented about digital organization. He covered Microsoft 365 software offered for free through the college, including Outlook for keeping up with emails and Microsoft Word for submitting assignments.
Ferguson also addressed checking emails consistently to reduce stress and avoid missed opportunities.
“Get your emails on check,” he said. “Even with the general MC emails, there are opportunities in there—scholarship and internship opportunities that are sent in those. There are many opportunities that are missed by students.”
As part of his presentation, Ferguson shared a personal challenge with digital clutter, especially when constant notifications from multiple platforms started to pile up.
“Don’t make everything important because this can stress you out,” he said. “Simplify and use what works for you.”
He also said he had notifications on for everything in his earlier semesters, but the steady stream of alerts distracted him from completing assignments, and his grades declined.
The software Ferguson recommended was meant to help students stay organized and avoid falling behind, a challenge ATPA staff say students commonly face.
For ATPA program assistant Afrika Nyasuma, being organized is one way to help students succeed.
“For some students, it might be difficult to stay on top of everything,” she said. “It’s nice to have other students come and share how they stay organized.”
Nyasuma said she hopes students walk away with at least one new strategy or idea they can use to stay organized.
Celine Paul, a civil engineering major and ATPA student, attended the event and said unsubscribing was the most helpful tip she received.
Paul recommended that students who already know of the presented information should still attend these events because they are reminders of the college’s resources, which students can implement.
“The events are reminders and can give students a space to implement helpful tools. Even though I’m tech-savvy, I was able to put a couple of things in place while they were talking. I was able to use the time,” she said.
Ferguson said ATPA is a coaching program that helps students through coaching.
“We help with students’ overall well-being. We don’t drop you,” he said. “The coaches are professors or administrators at MC. We want to see students graduate or transfer from MC with the skills and resources they need to do so.”
